6 Quick Ways to Use Social Media for Branding

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6 Quick Ways to Use Social Media for Branding

While there’s no overnight success when it comes to converting social media followers to customers, there are some strategies you can implement immediately to see results. Remember the importance of branding – every social interaction says something about your brand. Here’s how to make sure it says exactly what you want your brand to convey:

1. Upload Consistent Avatars

If you’ve got an old logo for your Twitter icon, your new company logo for Facebook and a product image on Google +, you’re sending a mixed message to your followers and customers. Stick to a single avatar across all channels so that visitors build a mental connection from the social platform back to your site.

Use a high-quality version (large pixel size) of your company logo, unless you’re branding yourself, in which case you should use a really great smiling photograph. The reason to use a large image size is that sometimes others download your logo from social sites if they write about your company, so you want it to be as high quality as possible.

2. Use Similar Colors and Design Across Platforms

In addition to ensuring that your images are the same on all social media profiles, it’s important to deliver a similar look across the board. This, too, should tie in with what you’re doing on your business’ website.

Twitter allows you to upload a custom background to your profile. Facebook and Google + provide a large banner photo or image up top. These are valuable real estate locations, and they provide you with the opportunity to use similar color and design elements to integrate with your company logo colors and the design of your site. A visitor should be able to recognize your brand from any social page they visit.

3. Deliver Consistent Messaging

Develop a voice that speaks to what your company is all about. If you provide useful tips for your audience on Facebook in a professional tone, make sure you’re not using all caps and slang (“OMG THIS BLOG POST ROXX!”) on Twitter, as an example.

Your social updates represent your company so it’s important, first of all, to maintain a professional voice, and second, to be consistent. Visitors should know what to expect when browsing your social profiles.

This is especially important if specific qualifies are key to the impression you want to convey: luxury, formality, trust, professionalism or other attributes. If one of those types of attributes is important to your brand, you need to convey that attribute throughout your social messaging.

4. Provide Unique Content on Each Channel

That being said, you shouldn’t duplicate content across all social channels. It’s fine to share the same blog post, as an example, but find a new way to present it for each channel.

Ideally, you want to give people a reason to follow you on all platforms. If you’re delivering the same identical update on all at exactly the same time, there’s no reason for them to do that.

Diversify your communication strategy for each. Mix up what you offer, as in this example:

On Twitter, share relevant links from our blog and other industry sites

On Facebook, share videos our audience appreciates, as well as answer questions about our products

On LinkedIn, actively participate in industry groups

On Google+, engage with other users and start a dialogue

5. Check for “Unofficial” Pages, Claim Them, and Brand Them

Check social sites to make sure there are not already pages set up that you haven’t claimed.

This can happen on review sites like Yelp. Look for instructions on how to claim your profile, such as here for Yelp.

On sites like LinkedIn, there may be a company page but no one is listed as the Administrator and therefore no one can update the page. So you have to contact LinkedIn to be able to assign administrators.

Or it may be a situation where someone has used your company name without permission, in which case you will have to contact the social network and report the unauthorized use. Facebook has a form to report impersonations of individuals or companies.

6. Focus on 2 to 4 Social Sites

It is possible to go overboard when it comes to joining social media sites. Sure, you want to reach as many people as possible, but you’ll do better to zero in on only as many as you have time to update. Think deep, not wide.

When you focus, it is easier to develop a consistent message and brand visibility.

Remember, the more effort you put into social media, the better the results. Aim for a consistent, engaging experience, and you will attract new followers and, eventually, customers.

About the Author:

My name is Anita Campbell. I run online communities and information websites reaching over 6 million small business owners, stakeholders and entrepreneurs annually, including Small Business Trends, a daily publication about small business issues, and BizSugar.com, a small business social media site.

Comments:

Amy Jasmine | 12/12/2013 - 4:22 am

Great ways to use social media for branding. In addition nowadays, Hashtags are being used for gaining more followers which are being used in Google+ and twitter for categorizing the posts. This can also increase your credits in your viral marketing campaign.

VoiceFirst Solutions | 10/16/2013 - 2:06 pm

Excellent social media tips here. Focus on the social media outlets where your target customers/clients/influencers already are. Don't just assume Facebook or Twitter is the most important social media site for your business. Consider where your targets are already spending their time, then devote your social media energy to those sites.

BiancaFrankDesign | 9/30/2013 - 8:13 pm

From a brand perspective these are some great tips. Don't forget to keep the visuals uniform, between various forms of medium. The consistency in message, tone, and visuals is of the utmost importance when growing your Brand Equity.
Also, providing an exceptional service or product is still essential. The best logo and branding in the world won't keep a sub-par service or product afloat for long.
Make sure to hire a professional to assist with your branding. It's essential to include this as part of your start up investment costs. If you are already in business, have a professionally trained designer work through your brand elements and re-brand as necessary.

Clarity Quest M... | 9/18/2013 - 3:33 pm

These are all great social media tips. In addition to making sure your brand is consistent across all social media profiles, also make sure your brand identity and messaging is up-to-date on all other marketing materials. If you create a new logo or tagline, be sure to include this in your brochures, marketing collateral, business cards, one-pagers, proposals, advertisements, and website. It's a good idea to keep a list of all the places your logo appears so you don't leave any important documents out of date. Having a consistent brand - both online and off - will help establish trust among your consumers.

Seppi | 9/16/2013 - 2:20 pm

Also try to avoid the biggest mistake most businesses do. Post only about your business. You have to understand the nature of each platform and what users like to consume on that particular platform. Post things like:
1. Local events
2. Industry related/unrelated humorous posts
3. References to other businesses that compliment your product service

MookyCat | 9/15/2013 - 9:12 am

I like your idea of using each platform for a different (although related) type of message; Twitter for blog updates, facebook for product questions... It's hard, sometimes, to decide what to share on each but this strategy takes a little of that indecision away. Thank you!!

seo marketing | 9/14/2013 - 9:57 am

This tips are more like consistency day to day work you ought to layout, I will rather take them as a strategy outlined method for branding yourself online...The main idea is to get your brand or site to become social media friendly and that means viral and also the use of content that are positively controversial..They spread like wild fire!
Nice ways to use social media for branding.
Thumbs up!

safreybiz | 9/14/2013 - 2:54 am

Thanks for the information but it is also important to have followers who identify with your business. Many people are concerned only with the number of followers even when a lot of the followers don't really care much about your business enterprise. [Link removed]

Shoplet Promos | 9/13/2013 - 12:06 pm

Claiming your Yelp page is a must for a local business. It's a really common place for people to find your business - there should be as much information on the page as possible. It's also important to read through negative reviews and make sure you try and satisfy those customers in some way.

stephen.moyer | 9/13/2013 - 2:21 am

The ways which you have shown for branding your business on Social Media really helps lot to improve our social media presence. I really like your idea to claim a listing on reviews and social media sites. Thank for sharing:)